Qantas
chairman Margaret Jackson says that the globe risks significant problems if it fails to combat climate change. At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) business summit she urged world leaders not to delay action on reducing emissions.

However, Jackson defended the aviation industry, saying it attracted a lot of misplaced attention in terms of the climate change debate.

She said that governments must not use difficult and prolonged negotiations as an excuse to delay action on climate change.

“We don’t have time to negotiate endlessly to come up with the prefect solution,” Jackson told a gathering of business delegates on the first day of the APEC event, and was reported by the Australian Associated press.

“If we fail to act soon and comprehensively, we will risk massive problems: economic, social, political and environmental,” she said.

“I don’t want my children’s children to point the finger at me and my generation and say: you could have done something.”

The answer to climate woes needs to involve business and economic development, Jackson said. She also proposed three levels of action - regional, national and business.

Jackson also reiterated that business responded better to reward than punishment and that the airline industry was being singled out in the debate on climate change.

“Aviation only comprises two per cent of global emissions, where as the transport sector in total accounts for about 14 per cent of emissions, with most of that being road transport,” she said.
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